Dissertation Research: Aboriginal ecosystem management as a socio-natural system

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

Fire is a powerful resource management tool, perhaps the oldest to be used by humans. Through the use of fire to open up forests and woodlands, establish grasslands and encourage the establishment of species beneficial to human survival, humans have modified ecosystems such that they have become dependent upon anthropogenic fire for maintenance. This dissertation research project studies the socio-natural system of fire that has resulted from the repeated actions and reactions of both social and natural processes in Western Australia. The student, a human ecologist from University of California, Davis, will explore the relationship between Australian Aboriginal management practices and the distribution and abundance of vegetation communities and kangaroo populations in the Kimberley region of tropical Australia. Analysis of the Aboriginal human-nature interaction will focus on the interactions between three components of the socio-natural system: resource use, management practice and reproductive biology. A two-fold approach to analyzing Aboriginal ecosystem management with fire will be carried out, using both ethnographic and ecological research methodologies. This research will document indigenous land management in a contemporary context while situating that context historically. Fire encapsulates the Aboriginal relationship with land, yet Western settlers and land management agencies heavily circumscribe fire practice. Improving fire management is a priority both within and beyond Australia, and this research contributes to that need.